Back...Zambrano?
Alright, the first post of what should be a bunch hopefully. I'm hoping to do something real nice with a post tomorrow because I'll be in the office for about 8 hours with two games being played at ScotiaBank Place. If anyone is in the Ottawa region, head to the Civic Centre tonight to honour a legend, when Brian Kilrea coaches his 2000th game. I'll be there for the ceremonies before I go catch some shut eye.
On to baseball, the Jays kept stockpiling arms by signing Victor Zambrano to a minor league deal. He's a very average guy coming off Tommy John surgery and a guy who walks a lot of batters. Surprisingly, Zambrano agreed to have a team option for 2008 which could be huge if ever he pitches well this year. If not, it's only a minor deal so not much investment. I like what J.P. has done, he wasn't able to sign or trade for a great SS or SP so he stockpiled as many options as possible to bring a competition to the positions. His pitching signings look great when Tony Armas signs for $3.5 million...
I can't wait for Spring Training at this point, have there ever been this many positions up for grabs? I'm going to one game in late March and I'm hoping to see a lot of these starters give it their all in one final stretch. Zambrano should not be ready until mid-season but by that time either Thomson or Ohka could be injured so it will be great to have him around...stay tuned for more.
1 comment:
I think you can kind of disregard last year's numbers on Zambrano (and quite possibly the year before's) because of the injury problems. He was obviously struggling to make it through the pain and I think he's at worst a low risk investment and at best a good number 3. The more realistic projection (in my mind), is that if he stays healthy for the last 4 months of the season, he'll pitch ~100 innings with an ERA of ~4.50
Nothing bad can really come of this. JP is impressive.
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